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HP gives printers email addresses

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By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 7 Jun 2010 at 13:45

HP is set to unveil a line of printers with their own email addresses, allow people to print from devices such as smartphones and the iPad.

The company last year released a web-connected, touchscreen printer - the Photosmart Premium Touchsmart Web - but the new line-up will be the first to feature their own dedicated email addresses.

That will allow users to email their documents or photos directly to their own - or someone else's - printer. It will also let people more easily share physical documents, as rather than merely emailing links around, users can email a photo to a friend's printer.

The email address could overcome the need for specific printer drivers on devices such as smartphones, Apple's iPad (which doesn't currently offer printing facilities) and Google's forthcoming Chrome OS devices.

According to a report in the New York Times, the printers will cost between $99 and $400. The first round of consumer devices will be out next month, while small business versions will arrive by September.

HP predicted it will sell 15 million of the web-ready printers by next year. “We think by next year more printing will be done from the web than from word-processing applications,” Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of HP's printing division, told the newspaper.

HP is also expected to unveil an app store with 40 partners. The ePrintCentre will let users download software to their printers or buy items, such as colouring books to print off for children.

Last month, HP said it was planning to use Palm's webOS on devices including printers, after paying out $1.2 billion for the mobile firm.

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User comments

Spam?

So when it receives spam, it prints it?

Given HPs attempts at printer drivers over the past few years this could be a leap forward. For them.

JH

By JohnHo1 on 7 Jun 2010

Hopefully the security settings on this will be totally draconian.

By steviesteveo on 7 Jun 2010

Insane Genius?

This idea is clever and absurd in equal measure. I can see in a few months we'll have articles about "Denial of Ink" attacks where you deplete someone's ink by sending lots of full page saturated colour graphics.

By milliganp on 7 Jun 2010

Cui bono?

Seems to me that this sneaky facility will greatly benefit the manufacturers of printer ink cartridges, like, coincidentally, Hewlett Packard!

By JohnGray7581 on 7 Jun 2010

You used to (you may still do) get denial of ink attacks on fax machines - it was easy and cheap to send someone a black shape the size of a sheet of paper many times but difficult to print it out.

By steviesteveo on 7 Jun 2010

I would assume the recipient had the choice of whether to print the incoming email or not, rather than forced printing, and a lot of modern printers have their own LCD, which could be used to preview the docs as they come in.

Wonder how much storage they'll have. Can they also forward emails? Will they become bots?

By Phoomeister on 8 Jun 2010